Saving Seafood

ALASKA: Bristol Bay: Back to the Pebble grind

February 28, 2019 — Alaska’s Bristol Bay salmon fishermen are once again rallying the troops to help check a juggernaut that threatens the world’s single-most productive salmon fishery.

Mining the copper and gold deposit at the headwaters of Bristol Bay’s natal sockeye streams might not be an inherently risky proposition were it not for the toxic byproduct. Based on our current best technology, toxic runoff from the mining process would be diverted to tailings ponds, which are essentially pools with dams built around them. Historically, these containment fields leak eventually.

The geography and topography of Bristol Bay complicates this plan. Any Anchorage area resident will tell you that Southwest Alaska is part of the ring of fire. After the 7.0 earthquake on Nov. 30, Anchorage area residents felt more than 6,000 aftershocks in just 30 days. That’s an average of 200 per day, or about 8 aftershocks per hour. And now, three months later, the aftershocks have not stopped.

What might the outcome be if a similar scenario hit Bristol Bay, about 250 miles from Anchorage, and thousands of aftershocks rippled through the water-laden soil containing manmade ponds of toxic sludge? Would they remain intact? Or would they twist and crumble like so many of the paved roads around Anchorage?

As long as Pebble Mine’s tailings ponds are to be built into Bristol Bay’s permeable soil in an earthquake zone, the plan may as well include a ticking clock on the health of the region’s renewable salmon resource.

Read the full story at National Fisherman

ALASKA: U.S. Army Corps releases draft report on Pebble Mine

February 21, 2019 — The U.S. Army Corps of Engineers released Pebble Mine’s draft environmental impact statement on Wednesday, one of the biggest stepping stones in the permitting process for the proposed copper-and-gold mine near the headwaters of Bristol Bay.

The purpose of the draft EIS is to analyze the project’s proposal and present alternative plans. The environmental review, totaling more than 1,400 pages, the Army Corps proposes multiple actions including an analysis of permitting the mine, alternate transportation corridors and rejecting the mine proposal altogether.

A 90-day public comment period will begin March 1, allowing stakeholders to give their thoughts on the report before a final version is delivered to federal agencies. Opponents of the mine are pushing back against the comment period, claiming in isn’t a long enough timeline for thorough feedback.

“A 90-day comment period is far too short of a time period to review and comment on the recently released Draft Environmental Impact Statement,” said Andy Wink, executive director of the Bristol Bay Regional Seafood Development Association. “The speed at which insufficient materials are being pushed through this mine’s permitting process is irresponsible given that the Bristol Bay salmon ecosystem is a biological wonder of the world. This region contains the world’s largest wild salmon runs, which have supported a rich culture for millennia and sustained a thriving commercial fishery for more than 130 years.”

“A 270-day comment period on the Draft EIS is the first – and necessary – step in holding the Pebble Limited Partnership accountable during the permitting process,” said Bristol Bay Native Corporation CEO Jason Metrokin. “Bristol Bay cannot become a laboratory to test unproven and unprecedented mining practices.”

Read the full story at National Fisherman

ALASKA: What does the Dunleavy administration mean for the proposed Pebble Mine?

December 27, 2018 — One of the most controversial issues Alaska’s leaders have ever had to wrestle with is the proposed Pebble Mine. The new governor is no exception.

Officially, Gov. Mike Dunleavy is not taking a position on the mine, unlike his predecessor, Gov. Bill Walker, who opposed it.

“So the Pebble Mine project, just like any other natural resource development project, will be subject to an established permitting process,” Gov. Dunleavy said in an emailed statement. “The outcome of this process will determine if the project meets the standards set forth in law and regulation.”

But the new governor is already making moves that have encouraged the mine’s backers and worried its opponents.

One of those statements was made during Dunleavy’s first major public appearance after being elected governor. He was speaking a mining conference in Anchorage, where he proclaimed that “Alaska is open for business.”

The governor gave a shout out to the Red Dog mine, where all three of his daughters work. He spoke about his roots in the mining community of Scranton, Pa., which he called the “anthracite coal capital of the world.”

Read the full story at Alaska Public Media

Pebble launches post-election outreach campaign in Alaska

November 20, 2018 — The proposed Pebble Mine in Southwest Alaska has been back in the news after this month’s elections, and now it’s also back in Alaskans’ mailboxes.

The Pebble Limited Partnership, the company behind the project, has launched a new marketing campaign following Alaska voters’ defeat of salmon-habitat preservation initiative Ballot Measure 1 and Republican Mike Dunleavy’s victory in the race for governor.

As a candidate, Dunleavy said he’s in favor of allowing the proposed mega-mine to work through the federal permitting process. Ballot Measure 1, the “Stand for Salmon” initiative, was largely seen as an anti-development initiative by the resource development industry.

“We’re very encouraged by the election of the governor-elect and of the results from the ballot measure campaign, really as a validation that Alaska has process, a fair process for reviewing projects,” Mike Heatwole, a spokesperson for the partnership, said Monday.

Read the full story at KTVA

 

ALASKA: Next steps to protect the industry from Pebble Mine

November 19, 2018 — Stakeholders in Alaska’s Bristol Bay have watched the federal and state regulatory landscape heave and buckle with the shifting sands of federal oversight.

Fishermen invested in other watersheds threatened by mining waste and potential mine development have watched this battle, as well. But the lessons to be learned shift at every turn. Join me and a panel of insiders on Monday at Pacific Marine Expo for a public meeting on Pebble Mine, where we will discuss next steps for the industry.

The Trump administration breathed life back into the prospects for Pebble Mine.

Pebble CEO Tom Collier wasted no time in penning a January 2017 editorial praising his company’s efforts to address the concerns of Alaska residents, the thousands of fishermen who make their living in the shadow of the potential mine and its caustic byproducts, and the millions of consumers who rely on Bristol Bay’s pristine rivers to welcome back the world’s largest wild salmon run year after year.

Read the full story at National Fisherman

ALASKA: Salmon measure suffers resounding defeat. What happened?

November 9, 2018 — A ballot measure aimed at protecting salmon habitat received a resounding defeat in the statewide general election Tuesday.

With 98 percent of precincts reporting as of Wednesday afternoon, Ballot Measure 1, commonly known as Stand for Salmon, held only 35.2 percent of Alaska’s vote, with 61.6 percent voting against.

In a state where everyone loves salmon, why did voters reject Ballot Measure 1 by such a large margin?

Measure co-sponsor Mike Wood, a Mat-Su carpenter and set net fisherman, was in good spirits when reached by phone Wednesday. The measure started a conversation, Wood said. Alaskans now talk about updating fish habitat permitting law. The existence of that discourse means that, though the measure fell, it “fell forward,” Wood said.

“Salmon now have a seat at the table, instead of just being on the platter,” as Wood put it.

Money played a big factor in the loss, Wood said.

The coffers behind the principal group supporting the measure, Yes for Salmon — Yes on 1, paled in comparison to that of industry-led opposition group Stand for Alaska — Vote No on One. Measure opponents raised $12 million in cash and in-kind contributions, according to the latest report from the Alaska Public Offices Commission. About half of that money came from a group of six oil and mining companies, which donated $1 million each. Stand for Salmon proponents had only $1.7 million to work with, according to the last APOC report before the election.

Read the full story at the Juneau Empire

ALASKA: With salmon ballot measure’s defeat, Pebble celebrates

November 8, 2018 — By a significant margin, Alaska voters defeated Ballot Measure 1, commonly known as the Stand for Salmon initiative.

The controversial measure was aimed at increasing protections for Alaska’s most iconic fish. It would have significantly toughened the environmental permitting process for large developments impacting salmon habitat.

The outcome was celebrated by a key figure pressing ahead on another controversial issue: the CEO of the Pebble Limited Partnership.

Pebble CEO Tom Collier said even though his company’s mine proposal wasn’t always at the forefront of the debate, the salmon habitat initiative was, in some ways, all about Pebble.

“It was clear that this initiative was aimed at trying to stop Pebble and to stop any other major significant resource development project in Alaska,” Collier said in an interview Wednesday.

Pebble’s push to develop a copper mine in the Bristol Bay region faces fierce resistance from groups who say it endangers the salmon fishery there, and many of those same groups supported Ballot Measure 1. But Pebble kept a relatively low profile leading up to the election. Although it contributed money to Stand for Alaska – Vote No on 1, the campaign against the initiative, it didn’t play much of a role in the opposition’s messaging.

But Collier said had Ballot Measure 1 passed, it would have posed hurdles for Pebble, both in getting permits and in seeking a new financial partner (the company lost a potential major investor earlier this year.) Collier said with the initiative’s defeat, he’s more confident about the Pebble’s prospects.

Read the full story at KTOO

ALASKA: Alaska gubernatorial hopefuls Dunleavy, Begich square off in fish survey

November 1, 2018 — If Republican candidate Mike Dunleavy wins his bid to become the next governor of Alaska on Tuesday, look for an all-out effort by the state to expand its seafood export markets but not a direct challenge of president Donald Trump’s tough trade policies.

“A governor of one state clearly doesn’t set trade policy for the nation,” he said in one of several responses to a survey on commercial fishing organized by the Kodiak Chamber of Commerce.

Democratic candidate Mark Begich, meanwhile, would bring together a bipartisan group of governors from other states to pressure the federal government into changing course.

“As governor, I won’t sit on the sidelines when national policies hurt Alaska, like Trump’s trade war with China,” he said.

Read the full story at Undercurrent News

Seattle authorities urge US government to take action on Pebble Mine

October 31, 2018 — The city council in Seattle, Washington, has passed a resolution urging the US federal government to protect the Bristol Bay, Alaska, area from the proposed Pebble Mine development.

In the resolution, the council stressed the importance of the industry the Bristol Bay commercial fishing industry brings to the state of Washington’s economy, including sportfishing-related tourism.

Sockeye salmon from Bristol Bay is served in restaurants throughout Washington and is estimated to support roughly 3,100 jobs as well as contribute $550 million to the state’s economy.

“Guests specifically come to Sand Point Grill for our salmon,” said Travis Rosenthal,  owner of the Seattle-based Sand Point Grill restaurant and board member of the Seattle Restaurant Alliance, in a press released jointly issued by the SRA and also the Businesses for Bristol Bay (BBB) coalition. “Building a mine of this size in Bristol Bay could be detrimental to such a fragile, special ecosystem. Not to mention other impacts such as keeping Seattle-based fishermen employed and salmon on the plates of Sand Point Grill diners.”

Read the full story at Undercurrent News

 

Republican leading Alaska gubernatorial race a mystery on commercial fishing issues

October 19, 2018 — Every major candidate in every Alaska gubernatorial, US Senate or House election since 1991 — and in quite a few state legislative races, too — has met on the stage in Kodiak to debate issues related to the state’s commercial fishing industry.

They never miss it, such is the importance of fishing to the state of Alaska.

But Mike Dunleavy won’t be at the Gerald C. Wilson Auditorium this Monday to square off against his two main political combatants in the latest race for governor, independent incumbent Bill Walker and Democratic candidate Mark Begich.

Instead, the 57-year-old Republican, former state senator and educational consultant — who has been leading the 2018 race for governor of the state by a wide margin in all recent polls — will be “visiting with Alaskans in Barrow,” a town more than 1,200 miles away in the northern part of the state, his staff reportedly informed the debate organizers this week.

The decision serves to further confound the fishing captains, seafood processors and many laborers in Alaska’s massive commercial fishing industry just three weeks before they’ll join other Alaskans in voting booths. They’re struggling to learn more about what their next likely governor might do on such issues of consequence as the proposed Pebble Mine and trade with China.

Read the full story at Undercurrent News